M. Opitz & Co. AG is one of the few Swiss cosmetics manufacturers to comply with the strict pharmaceutical regulations of Swissmedic. Other strict legal requirements and production with many different raw materials require a powerful and evolving ERP system. The GUS-OS Suite provides this today. The St. Gallen-based company uses it to comprehensively map its processes from purchasing to shipping and also ensures the traceability of all raw materials.
The chance
The family-owned company M. Opitz & Co. AG produces high-quality cosmetic and pharmaceutical products at its headquarters in St. Gallen with 60 employees according to the strict regulations of the Swissmedic quality standard - including its own brand Mila d'Opiz. As an IT solution, the company initially used an AS400 merchandise management system to which many individual systems were connected via interfaces. With this IT landscape, fast and efficient production was no longer possible in the long term. What was needed was a stable, central and flexibly expandable ERP system that could replace the previous stand-alone solutions and map all important operating processes. M. Opitz shortlisted around half a dozen providers and evaluated them over several months. The contract was finally awarded to GUS Schweiz with its GUS-OS Suite - which also scored points with numerous references in related industries such as chemicals, food and lifestyle. In addition, the corporate culture of the medium-sized IT specialist was a perfect fit for a family business like M. Opitz.
IT - rethought
After M. Opitz carried out a thorough data cleansing and re-entered around 90 percent of its data, the migration project was completed in a rush together with the specialists from GUS Switzerland. Today, the GUS-OS Suite maps and controls all processes from purchasing to delivery, production and shipping to invoicing. All process steps that a cosmetic product goes through up to the finished cream can with folding box and package insert are stored in the system. Minute job lists facilitate production control, in which the formulations are stored. If, for example, too much or too little of a certain raw material is on the scale, the process is stopped immediately by the system. As a result, the error rate during weighing-in is close to zero. In addition, M. Opitz uses the GUS-OS Suite to perform validation for Swissmedic certification, which must be renewed every five years. The various legal compliance regulations, prices and article master data for the approximately 40 countries to which M. Opitz supplies cosmetic products are also stored in the system.
Fit for the future
With the GUS-OS Suite, M. Opitz uses an ERP system that significantly streamlines data management and process control. The special advantages of the solution are:
- Clear structure with user-friendly data preparation and detailed reporting enables fast and up-to-date information retrieval across all processes in the company
- The central ERP system replaced many scattered island systems
- From purchasing to shipping, M. Opitz benefits from fast, stable and error-free processes
- A constantly maintained database enables customized product offers for customers
- Production planning is agile and flexible, the quality of production processes higher
- Traceability of raw materials and compliance with legal requirements is ensured
- The expandable and evolvable solution provides a scalable foundation for future growth
- Easy to validate, since the basic system is already prevalidated
With the GUS-OS Suite, we got exactly what we needed: a control center that remains expandable and future-proof through continuous further development. If we continue to grow, the system grows with us.
GUS OS suite and Mila d'Opiz in the press
Print: "High-tech for the skin" - from CHEManager 12/2020
Online: https://www.chemanager-online.com/news/hightech-fuer-die-haut
